First at Last

INDIANAPOLIS — It may have taken two extra days to get it in, but once the Indy Racing League’s new-look Indianapolis 500 got underway Tuesday, it turned out to be one of the most competitive races ever run in 81 tries on the venerable old Indianapolis Motor Speedway track.

After nerves were frayed from two days of rain delays and the fear that newly designed engines might not be up to the task, Arie Luyendyk, Scott Goodyear, rookie Jeff Ward, defending champion Buddy Lazier and Robbie Buhl put on dramatic 3 1/2 hours of racing before Luyendyk flashed across the finish line 0.57 seconds ahead of Goodyear, his Fred Treadway teammate.

Luyendyk averaged 145.827 mph in his second Indy 500 win, and he said “this one was much more difficult, much harder work” than his victory in 1990.

It was worth much more too. Unofficially, Luyendyk and the Treadway team earned an Indy-record $1,553,650 for the win, about 50% more than in 1990.

Ward, a former national motocross champion from San Juan Capistrano in only his second Indy car race, finished 4.081 seconds behind, in third, and won the rookie of the year award. He might have won the race had he not had to pit for a seven-second splash of fuel eight laps from the end.

Lazier, bidding to become the first back-to-back winner since Al Unser in 1970-71, was fourth, and the precocious Tony Stewart fifth after brushing the wall on Lap 198.

About 100,000 spectators returned to watch 185 laps of racing Tuesday after Stewart had led all 15 in an abortive start Monday before rain pelted Indy. There were 19 lead changes among seven drivers Tuesday.

More significant, after all the horror stories that the 500 might be the first race no one finished because of the lack of tested engines, there were 13 cars running at the end of 500 miles, and of the 22 who dropped out, 10 were because of accidents.

“I think the race put to rest any concerns about reliability,” said Tony George, founder and president of the IRL and the man who created the break between the Indy 500 and the established Championship Auto Racing Teams.

This year, for the first time, a new engine formula decreed that cars be powered by naturally aspirated engines built by Oldsmobile Aurora or Nissan Infiniti. Curiously, an average of 13.7 cars have finished the Indy 500 in the last 20 years with turbocharged engines.

Luyendyk and Goodyear drove G Force chassis powered by Aurora engines built by Jack Roush of Livonia, Mich., the same builder who furnishes Winston Cup Ford engines for Mark Martin and Jeff Burton.

It was the first time teammates finished one-two since 1962, when Rodger Ward and Len Sutton crossed the finish line first and second in Leader Card cars.

After six cars were eliminated Monday, three by an accident and three by engine failures, Tuesday got off to a shaky start when Robby Gordon’s car caught fire seconds after he had streaked past Luyendyk into second place. Gordon jumped from the car and rolled on the grass to put out the unseen methanol fire.

“I’m going to change into a clean uniform and get back into the race,” said Gordon, but the car was in no condition to resume running. Gordon suffered first- and second-degree burns to both wrists and his right thigh.

Officially, the fire came on Lap 18, and from the moment the green light came back on Lap 28, the action on the 2 1/2-mile rectangular oval was as tense as any race in recent memory.

Stewart, looking for his first IRL win after leading seven of the eight races run, shot into the lead Monday and held it Tuesday for the first 50 laps. His florescent yellow Team Menard G Force led the most laps, 64, and he also had the day’s fastest lap, 215.626 mph on Lap 105, while chasing Luyendyk.

“I don’t mean to sound so happy because I finished fifth, but that was one of the most fun races I’ve ever had,” said Stewart, a U.S. Auto Club triple-champion two years, but at 26 the youngest driver in the race. “It was a great race. If people say they didn’t enjoy this Indy 500, then they aren’t real race fans.”

Ward, who started seventh as the second-fastest rookie, made use of some judicious pit strategy by team owner Eddie Cheever’s crew to take the lead for the first time on Lap 142. After briefly giving up the front to Luyendyk when he pitted, Ward returned to the lead and when he pulled 10 seconds ahead it appeared as if a rookie would win for the first time since Graham Hill in 1966.

The little motorcycle veteran was still leading with eight laps remaining when an accident involving sprint car champion Steve Kinser and Lyn St. James brought out a yellow flag. Ward and Stewart, second at the time, ducked into the pits for fuel. It was only a seven-second stop, but it was enough for Goodyear, Luyendyk and Lazier to get ahead.

Another caution flag came out on Lap 196 when a mirror fell off Goodyear’s car, and still another one when Stewart brushed the wall two laps later.

These two cautions, with the speeds reduced to 80 mph by the pace car, gave Luyendyk and Goodyear the luxury of not having to pit.

The final lap ended in confusion when Keith Ward, the chief steward, ordered the white and green flags to wave at the same time, signifying the end of the caution period and the start of the final lap. However, someone neglected to punch the button that changed the yellow lights around the track to green, so the last-lap shootout between Luyendyk and Goodyear never materialized.

“It was a mistake we shouldn’t have made,” Ward said. “However, this didn’t diminish the effect of the race at all.”

Said Goodyear: “I thought we were finishing under the yellow [caution flag]. We didn’t have any warning the race was going green, but I’m not sure if we would have had enough to pass Arie there at the end anyway.”

* COMMENTARY: In its ongoing feud with CART, the Indy Racing League got a big boost from its showcase. C4

* TO THE POINT: With his 12th-place finish, Mike Groff remained atop the Indy Racing League’s standings. C5

* RESULTS: C5